When Steven Spielberg lends his name to produce or direct a movie, you can bet people are going to notice.  Last May, he lent his name to Boom Blox, an addictive party-sized puzzler that ended up being quite a sleeper hit for the Wii.  Now EA is capitalizing on its success with Boom Blox Bash Party, another lengthy and addictive puzzler.

For players who have yet to experience Boom Blox, the game is all about the joy of tearing blocks down.  Each world in the game has various backgrounds, with the key component being a tower of blocks that just has to be knocked down.  The previous Boom Blox game had a story behind it, and most of the gameplay revolved around Jenga-style physics to get the towers down.

While Bash Party keeps all of that intact, the developers at EA have given players a lot more variety when it comes to how the blocks will come cascading down.  Aside from just the paint ball that changes various blocks to specific pigmented colors allowing for the traditional pop-three-in-a-row gameplay puzzlers are used to seeing, one of the new additions is the Virus ball.  When throwing at an infected block, you can set up chain reactions to tear up large quantities of blocks at a time, allowing for easier destruction.

Another new tool is the slingshot method, which allows you to grab any of the blocks on the 3D plain, and with the A button held down, you can aim at other blocks and release.  The B button is used to switch camera flow, which can sometimes lead to annoying angles, but getting by this is relatively easy as long as you’re playing a good distance away from your TV screen.

With over 400 levels, to say this sequel is bigger than the original is an understatement.  Players only have access to one level in each of the nine worlds, but since every level is simple to beat, that really isn’t an issue.  The real difficulty and fun comes from trying to obtain a gold medal in every level.  Getting a gold medal simply revolves around how many throws it takes for you to nail every block, so in the end, it’s pretty much reliant on how quickly it takes you to beat a level.

In addition to the game’s 400 levels, if your Wii is online, you also have the ability to download more levels for your block-knocking pleasure.  Of course, downloadable levels usually aren’t as memorable as the originals, but to save from that possibility, EA has given players the option of testing out a level before downloading it—which saves us all the stress of wasting space with the Wii’s low amount of memory.

If that all seems complicated, rest assured—it really isn’t.  The game comes equipped with a robust tutorial mode that still awards the player with points to keep them coming back.  These points can then be used to purchase more levels, power-ups, and other interesting prizes to further enhance play.

As fun as the game is alone, the game is just a whole lot more enjoyable when you have friends to play with.  Up to four people can join in on the fun, whether it’s to team up with the Co-Op campaign, get competitive with the vs. mode, or to just have a casual game, Bash Party was meant to be played with a group.  While the game lacks online multiplayer, it makes up for in the ability to have you or your friends create their own levels to submit to the EA’s Boom Blox servers for anybody to download.

Visually, Bash Party doesn’t stray far from its predecessor.  The game is still as vibrant as the original and while it wasn’t story-driven like the last one, the environments are simply wonderful.  You’ll be knocking blocks in space, underwater, and in other zany places to keep things feeling fresh.  Of course, you still have the ability to knock down those annoying block kids who watch your every move, so that’s always a satisfying feeling.

The game’s sound is just about everything a gamer can like from a game.  You have a lot of explosions, the sound of kids crying, the sound of kids laughing (okay, that may not be the best sound in the world) among other things, but the bottom line is that the game does well to cater to its family-driven audience and it does nothing to alienate anybody playing at all.  If something annoys you, knock it over—that’s what Boom Blox is all about.

Not a lot of people played the original Boom Blox simply because it fell off the radar, and at that, people expected a price drop.  Well, that didn’t happen until the release of this game.  So is the sequel worth the extra $20?  Boom Blox Bash Party is an extremely fun puzzle game that can be enjoyed by almost anybody at any give time, and that’s the most anybody can say about a third party game on the Wii.

Score – 8.7 | Suggestion: Buy It

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About This Author: Danreb Victorio

Danreb Victorio is SmashPad's longest tenured staff member and has been writing for the publication since its existence as Gaming-Nation, Inside Gamer Online, Amped IGO, Amped News, and Gamer 2.0. Though SmashPad has gone through many branding changes, Danreb has remained the same--he pushes out content while also improving his craft with every piece that gets published. As a Co-Managing Editor, Danreb, along with Chris Selogy, is in charge of assigning, maintaining, and providing SmashPad's editorial content. Danreb is currently an undergraduate at San Jose State University studying to earn a bachelor of science in magazine journalism. In addition to SmashPad, you can read his work on Yelp.com and San Jose State University's student newspaper, The Spartan Daily.

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